In the third year of Qingli, this is the seventh year that Zhao Jun came to the Great Song Dynasty.

He has done a lot in those seven years.

He swept away the stubborn diseases of Kaifeng Mansion, got rid of the rats hiding in the underground gutters of Bianliang, and solved the problem of the people's difficulty in filing complaints.

He traveled all over the world, went deep into the grassroots, understood the people's sufferings, and knew the difficulties of the world at the bottom, so that after Fan Zhongyan's death, he helped him preside over the reform of the Qingli New Deal, lightened forced labor and reduced taxes, and reduced the burden on the people.

He expanded the powers of the Imperial Historical Observatory and the Imperial City Division, making the scope of supervision broader and the supervision of officials more meaningful.

He also organized the establishment of a number of functional departments, clearly divided the responsibilities of officials, abolished the power of county and prefecture governments to hear cases, and made the public procuratorate and law independent; And made great contributions to the development of inventions and creations, cultural propaganda, and education that the imperial court did not attach much importance to.

In addition, he improved gunpowder, instructed the invention of cannons and muskets, established iron and steel mills, textile mills, and printing factories, manufactured Jenny spinning machines, and developed new high-efficiency steel converters, which made the smelting technology of the Great Song Dynasty achieve a qualitative leap.

He has done many, many things that have benefited tens of millions of people in the Great Song Dynasty. But he was the only one who did not attack the three major shortcomings of the Great Song Dynasty - redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses.

Because as he said in his early years, the problem of three redundancies is not only a poison that drags down the Great Song Dynasty, but also a good medicine to stabilize the situation in the Great Song Dynasty.

Take redundancy alone.

The Song Dynasty recruited a large number of rebellious peasants, brave and ruthless criminals, social rangers and gangsters who were not conducive to the rule to the military camps, which greatly maintained local stability.

Like Di Qing, Zhang Yu, Han Shizhong and others, in essence, they are all gangsters in the township, who like to fight and brawl, but eventually became a generation of famous generals.

Moreover, although the redundancy is serious, it also allows the Great Song Dynasty to have enough troops to deal with the sudden crisis.

Liao saw the battle between the Great Song Dynasty and the Western Xia in the Qing calendar year, and the more than 100,000 soldiers were stationed at the border, but in the end there was no large army to go south.

Wrong.

It was because the Great Song Dynasty mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops in the northwest to fight against the Western Xia, and on the other hand, it mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops on the border of Hebei to prepare for the Liao State.

Liao then felt that although the Great Song Dynasty had been defeated in successive battles, the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Song army were still a difficult bone to gnaw, and finally obtained the promise of Qingli to increase the currency, and accepted it when it was good.

Therefore, the redundant army seems to have seriously dragged down the finances of the Great Song Dynasty, but to a certain extent, it barely held the breath of the Great Song Dynasty, so as not to let the Great Song Dynasty perish early!

Not long after Zhao Jun crossed over, he shouted urgently, I want to solve the three redundancies, I want to abolish redundant officials and soldiers, and I want to reduce all expenses.

I am afraid that it will not be long before the people of the Great Song Dynasty are struggling to make a living.

At that point, even if Zhao Zhen and Lu Yijian knew that Zhao Jun was a rare traverser, they might have to kill him to quell the trouble.

Zhao Jun is a young and vigorous person, and he is also a patriotic little angry youth, but it doesn't mean that he is really stupid.

He has faith in his heart and worships the great man who said long live the people, so he hopes that the people of the Great Song Dynasty will live well and the Han people will be strong, but it does not mean that he will be able to be unscrupulous immediately after gaining power.

Because the great man once said that it is necessary to make innovations that suit the characteristics of one's own national conditions, and one cannot pat the head and feel that since this is a malaise, use forceful means to get rid of it.

That would be tantamount to quenching your thirst.

So when he came here, he only did some gentle reforms.

The biggest resistance encountered, that is, under the Qingli New Deal Examination Law, the officials were dissatisfied with the fact that they had to do so many things every day and had to conscientiously complete their tasks every day.

But now, he finally felt the time had come.

Inside the back garden.

Fan Zhongyan has just worked in the Constitutional Yuan.

Suddenly, Wang Shouzhong came over and told him that the official family had something to do with him.

So in the surprised eyes of Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others, Fan Zhongyan followed Wang Shouzhong out.

At this time, he walked on the path of the back garden, passed through the countryside in the distance, and saw Zhao Zhen who was walking back and forth outside the Guanjia Palace.

Next to him, Zhao Jun's face was serious, his hands were behind his back, his eyes raised to look at the sky, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

"Official, Hanlong."

Fan Zhongyan saluted Zhao Zhen first, and then said hello to Zhao Jun.

"Fan Qing."

Zhao Zhen answered, and said, "Let's go in first." ”

"Yes."

Fan Zhongyan probably guessed something, and immediately became excited, and followed Zhao Zhen into the Guanjia Palace.

Zhao Jun gave Wang Shouzhong a look, Wang Shouzhong understood, came over and closed the door, and then waved his hand to let the guards standing guard around him leave, and he stopped outside like a doorman.

When the three of them entered the hall, Zhao Zhen sat straight on his main seat, and then greeted Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Jun to sit under his left and right hands.

After everyone was all together, after sitting down, Fan Zhongyan opened his mouth and asked, "Official, what's the matter with summoning the ministers?" ”

"Eldest grandson, come and talk to Fan Qing."

Zhao Zhen looked at Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "I think the third round of reform should be able to start." ”

"Is it okay?"

Fan Zhongyan was in good spirits.

To be honest, the first two rounds of reforms.

The first round of examination is just to rectify the rule of officials.

Although the second round involves many aspects, the core is only to recuperate.

And what Fan Zhongyan really has to do has always been to solve the three redundancies.

Historically, he celebrated the new policy and eliminated the ills, wasn't it just to solve the redundant officials and redundant soldiers?

Now.

It's finally time to start in earnest.

Zhao Zhen asked worriedly: "Eldest grandson, is it really time?" ”

"yes."

Zhao Jun sighed: "It's here." ”

He stood up, his hands behind his back, looked down at the ground, and walked back and forth through the hall.

"If I had started the New Deal seven years ago, Da Song at that time would have been like a terminally ill patient."

"At that time, although the three redundant were harming the patient's body, they were also hanging on to his life."

"Redundant officials stabilize the world's scholars, and redundant soldiers can alleviate social contradictions and make Western Xia and Liao jealous. Although there are many redundant expenses, it makes the officials worry about food and clothing. ”

"In this way, even if the Great Song Dynasty at that time had serious internal and external troubles and uprisings were everywhere, with the support of scholars and the army, the situation could still be maintained."

"If I were going to carry out reform in a hurry at that time, there would be only one result for the end of the Great Song Dynasty."

Zhao Jun turned his head, looked at the two, and said sharply: "A dead end!" ”

"But now."

He took a long breath, pointed to the door and said seriously: "Internal and external troubles are temporarily lifted, and serious illnesses cannot be cured, but they have begun to recover, people's livelihood is gradually stable, hundreds of officials perform their duties, and the three redundancies have become tails." ”

"Does this have to be the time to start?"

Zhao Zhen said with a sad face: "At this time, the country has only been stable for two years, and many things have not yet been on the right track. ”

"Ugh."

Zhao Jun sighed again and sat back in his chair.

Fan Zhongyan asked, "What is the opportunity, or what is the reason, that makes you feel that you can start?" ”

"The ship to America has returned."

Zhao Jun said firmly and earnestly: "Once the new crops are popularized in the Great Song Dynasty, they will inevitably be able to increase productivity again, and this is a good time for disarmament." ”

"But why wait?"

Zhao Zhen persuaded: "Now I just heard that they are back, and I don't know if they can bring back what we need, and even if they bring it back, it will be a problem to promote it for three or five years." ”

"It can't be delayed any longer."

Zhao Jun sighed and said: "Brother, you also know how much the Great Song Dynasty spent on military expenses for a year, officials and other miscellaneous expenses, we don't even have much money to repair and govern, we can't develop education, infrastructure and transportation, if we don't do anything about the three redundancies, we will only let the three redundancies continue to drag the Great Song Dynasty down!" ”

Although he has done a lot of revenue generation, and the treasury has skyrocketed for a while, all this is only a short-lived illusion.

Because before Zhao Jun came, corrupt officials were everywhere. Therefore, he can go around and loot the property of these corrupt officials in the name of investigating corruption, and confiscate their money and property into the state treasury.

Because the Great Song Dynasty system has been around for a long time, the officials in charge of the operation of the field have made an unknown amount of money in it.

So he could reform the state-run market and sell a large number of state-owned shares for cash.

However, the world's officials will not kill more and more, if the investigation of corruption is normalized, refined, and long-term, then there will only be fewer and fewer corrupt officials, and even if there are, they are far less fat than at the beginning.

There are also a number of state-run farms in the world, and they will be sold out one day. When there are no state assets to sell, what else can be sold to fill the treasury?

Could it be that a large amount of money was embezzled from the bank's shop?

This thing can only be used urgently for a while, and if it is misappropriated in large quantities, it will only cause the economy to collapse, and prices will skyrocket, thus putting the country on the verge of collapse.

Even if Zhao Jun opened up five major trade routes, at this point in the Song Dynasty, the market was so big, the cake was so big, the productivity was so big, and there were even traffic restrictions.

The more than 50 countries that traded with the Great Song Dynasty, in addition to the surrounding Western Xia, Liao, Dali, Tubo, Japan, Goryeo and other countries, the rest of the Middle East and even those countries in Africa were limited by transportation, and the trade volume was so large.

And there is always a day when the market is saturated.

Therefore, there is one thing that Lu Yijian said is right, that is, if the income cannot be covered for a long time, one day the treasury will be finished, and the imperial court will have no money to use, which will eventually cause wages to be paid and the country is on the verge of collapse.

In the final analysis, even if there is still some surplus in the treasury during this time, there are also a lot of deposits in the internal treasury, but there are too many places for the Great Song Dynasty to spend money.

It costs money to pay salaries, build schools, build canals, dig canals, do research, do governance, and build firearms.

In the long run, the central government will continue to weaken.

It's like having a tumor in the head, it turns out that this tumor is constantly sucking people's nutrients, causing people to become weaker and weaker, although it is not fatal, but it makes the person in a critical state for a long time.

Now, by nourishing the body, the medicine and food are turned into nutrients, which not only replenishes the nutrients needed by this tumor, but also slowly makes people's bodies healthier.

But this tumor has always been here, and it has always been a hidden danger.

Once the person has spent all the money for medicine and food, and there is no money for treatment, the tumor will explode and become a terminal illness.

So while I still have money in my hand, and while my body has recovered a little now, I will have surgery as soon as possible to get rid of this tumor.

This is Zhao Jun's plan.

Originally, he thought that in a few years, when the people's livelihood in China stabilized and really came to a prosperous era of Renzong, he would start to do it again.

But I didn't expect the ships of the Americas to come back.

Although crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, potatoes and peanuts are not as productive as they begin out, they have the advantage of not taking up arable land.

Like sweet potatoes, potatoes and peanuts, they can be planted on wild hillsides, vegetable scraps, next to ridges and even sandy clay soils, and they can grow on their own as long as they are watered and left alone.

Even if this does not guarantee the yield and quality, if it can be planted extensively, it will definitely be a huge productivity increase for the current Da Song.

In this way, it can be ensured that when the country begins to solve the problem of redundancy, there will be no civil strife due to other problems.

In the unlikely event that the interests of the army are mobilized and the army rebels, the imperial court will have money and food to appease, and second, there will be no need to worry about a large number of peasant uprisings, which will cause the army and the peasants to break out together, leaving the country in a state of disarray.

Therefore, when the productivity is greatly improved, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and the domestic instability factors are completely solved, it is the best choice to do something about the three redundant problems!

"But at this time, the ship has not yet docked, and even if it brings something that will increase productivity, it will take time to promote it."

Zhao Zhen was puzzled: "Shouldn't it be slow?" ”

"No, it is true that it should be slow, but it is not about not doing things, but about doing something first, while improving productivity, and paving the way for the future."

Zhao Jun said to the two: "Just as we can have the present, we first paved the way for winning the Liao State and the Western Xia, and Lao Fan relied on the prestige of winning the battle to promote the examination method and the new policy. ”

"What foreshadowing?"

Zhao Zhen asked hurriedly.

"To reduce the army, you must first build the army!"

Zhao Jun raised a finger: "First, we must first cultivate a force that is absolutely loyal to us, the number of this force must be at least tens of thousands, and they are all elite soldiers, the generals who command the army must always train in the barracks, and they must be people we can trust!" ”

Zhao Zhen suddenly pondered.

In fact, the army has always been in his hands, and it is not difficult to select an elite army of tens of thousands of people.

Just draw from the Northwest Army.

But the latter is difficult to do, which seriously violates the requirements of the Song Dynasty generals to lead troops in non-wartime, and I am afraid that once it is done, the officials will immediately impeach.

"What do you think?"

Zhao Zhen asked.

"Lao Fan, Zhang Kang, Di Qing, Zhang Yu, Zhe Jimin, Guo Zun, Zhou Mei, Zhang Qi, Wang Xin, Fan Ke, Yang Wenguang, etc., are all trustworthy people."

Zhao Jun pondered: "My idea is that this army will be placed in Bianliang, let Lao Fan and Zhang Kang be the main generals and deputy commanders, and then Lao Fan and Zhang Kang, as civilian officials, usually go to the court, and they will also train when they train." ”

He continued: "For example, this army is 50,000 people, divided into ten parts, each part has a trustworthy general who can fight 5,000 people, and the general is permanently stationed in the battalion to prevent the soldiers from knowing the generals and the soldiers and ensure the combat effectiveness of the army. ”

"And this unit is also equipped with the best new weapons, such as artillery and flintlock pistols, it just so happens that our flintlock pistols have been designed and put into production, coupled with the continuous manufacture of steel, new firearms and equipment will soon usher in cold weapon iterations."

Zhao Jun looked at the two people, and said with a cold gaze: "In the future, disarmament, elimination of the old and weak, strict investigation of eating empty salaries and drinking the blood of soldiers, once someone instigates the army to rebel, this army will quickly attack and quell all disasters, even if the Liao State and Western Xia come to attack, there is a strong army that has established firearms, and there is no need to worry about safety." ”

"This"

Zhao Zhen hesitated in an instant.

This knife really cut itself first.

The first thing to move is his interests.

If so, it means that the army will be out of its control.

Although nominally it must have been his order, the Privy Council sent troops.

But if those generals are always in the army, these soldiers will become the private soldiers of these generals.

When the time comes, once these generals rely on their usual prestige and lead soldiers to rebel, I am afraid that they will repeat the mistakes of the five dynasties and ten kingdoms.

Therefore, in the case of the Great Song Emperor's military power in his bones, this matter really made Zhao Zhen hesitate.

"Brother, what are you hesitating about?"

Zhao Jun frowned and said: "I can't let people master 50,000 troops, Lao Fan and Zhang Kang are both in the court on weekdays, and if you want to transfer troops, you must also have your tiger talisman, and the generals below can only control 5,000 people, are you still afraid that they can rebel?" ”

Fan Zhongyan felt that this method was good, and also persuaded: "Yes, official, as long as we can master a group of elite soldiers, we will no longer have to worry about internal and external troubles." ”

"Brother, when you are constantly suffering, you still have to be decisive, think about Qin Shi Huang, think about Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, think about Li Shimin, don't you want to become the first emperor of the ages and the founder of the new era?"

Zhao Jun persuaded again.

Zhao Zhen gritted his teeth and said, "Okay. I trust the eldest grandson and Fan Qing, and this matter is all up to you! ”

"Hmm."

Zhao Jun nodded and said solemnly: "After the first step is to control your own army, then you really have to start a major reform. When the time comes, the large-scale disarmament and the inventory of the number of troops will affect the interests of many people, and it will depend on whether we can withstand this pressure. ”

This is also the reason why Zhao Jun must wait for the productivity to improve before he can carry out reform.

In the event of a major disarmament, there will immediately be hundreds of thousands more soldiers in society, and if these people are not given land or a livelihood for them, they are likely to become destabilizing factors.

But there are many wastelands in the Great Song Dynasty, but where are there so many water conservancy facilities for irrigation?

During the Qingli period, Cai Xiang also wrote a book, saying that the water conservancy facilities of the Bianhe River have not been repaired for many years, so that the capital and Henan Mansion should be fertile for thousands of miles, but there are tens of thousands of wasteland, wasting land in vain.

Therefore, Zhao Jun believes that while the imperial court still has money, he will simply dismantle a large number of troops, or hire them to repair water conservancy facilities, dig and build canals, and work for relief. Either give them some land and let them grow food, it is better than staying in the army and continuing to lie down and take money to the detriment of the country's finances.

And the premise of all this is that, in the case of touching the interests of the army, they have in their hands an army that can fight to suppress all possible rebellions!

Zhao Jun.

Prepared for the worst!

(End of chapter)